The present invention concerns the delivery of treating agents and moisturizers to the body as well as soft tissue replacement.
Often in the treatment of chronic conditions or illnesses, treating substances must be delivered to specific areas of the body and remain there for some time. The contact time is important to the efficacy of many treatments because they must be absorbed by the body or because they act slowly on the cause of the malady. Other factors to be considered in the choice of delivery system are ease of application, coverage, durability of effects, that it be leak resistant and comfortable, and that the system have the capability of delivering other treating agents over time in a controlled release manner.
Various methods have been used to increase the contact time of the treating substance with the body. Increasing the viscosity of the treating composition, for example, has been used for some time, but a high viscosity is sometimes an impediment to proper administration of the composition. A composition that is too viscous is difficult to work with and to put into place in the body. Multi-component compositions that react upon mixing to become semi-solid in place likewise suffer from the same problem; that of being difficult to administer. Multi-component compositions also can be quite complicated, sometimes having many ingredients in precise ratios which may pose a problem for the addition of treating agents.
While the current methods may solve some of the problems associated with the delivery of substances, they do not address all of the basic requirements of a successful system. There remains a need, therefore, for a delivery system that may be used by a consumer and which will be effective and easy to apply and that may be extended to deliver other treating agents.